I have a deep love of the Grand Theft Auto series. I think it all dates back to one fateful weekend some years ago when I popped GTA 3 into the Playstation 2. I spent the next two weeks playing the game endlessly instead of studying for my college exams. I was so drawn in by the sandbox gameplay of being able to do anything I wanted that I couldn’t put down the controller. Don’t worry, though, I still graduated.

I had actually played GTA: London and GTA 2 prior to playing GTA 3. I remember enjoying them but also basically writing them off after a couple of levels. GTA 3 was a completely different story as I felt I had to see and do everything in the game. A completionist was born!

Next came my favourite GTA title so far, GTA: Vice City. I felt the addition of a named protagonist who actually talked moved the storytelling aspect of the game forward by leaps and bounds. The character of Tommy Vercetti established a GTA lead who was no longer a silent loner…not so much for the guy playing the game, though. Perhaps what makes this game my favourite of the series is that it draws so heavily from the movie Scarface. Really, who doesn’t love Scarface?

After a bit of a lull came Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson and GTA: San Andreas. I didn’t play the game as soon as it came out and so after hearing that it was the best game in the history of the universe I was a little disappointed. There were some improvements in the game but there were also some bugs that made portions of the game nearly impossible. The mission “Supply Lines” comes to mind, although Rockstar did fix the problem when they released the Greatest Hits version of the game. I was stuck with my original disc version and refused to pay another $29.99 for what was essentially a patch. To date, I still haven’t 100% completed the game (for shame!). I got stuck doing a driving side mission over and over, “8-Track”, which became annoyingly difficult and I gave up. Terrible. Some day I will go back to it…maybe even today. Probably not.

There have been a couple of PSP/PS2 ported games since San Andreas, neither of which I have played. As I understand it, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories act as prequels to the fleshed out GTA games, and again, someday I will get around to playing them. After all, I want for Christmas is a PSP.

That, in several paragraphs, is my history with Grand Theft Auto. Now I am looking forward to the new Grand Theft Auto IV. It promises to be a reset of the series and expand on many of the already solid foundations of the game. Considering it’s coming out for next-gen consoles, hopefully they will be able to patch up any problems that arise. Considering the game has already been delayed once, I’m hoping that time was spent ironing out any impossible levels. I think I’m most excited about the fact that the game is returning to Liberty City, GTA’s answer to New York City. I can’t wait to see what they have planned Niko Bellic, the game’s new lead character, although I have to think that any kind of catastrophic mayhem involving the city and the buildings within it might be off-limits considering recent sensitivities. Then again, Rockstar has never been one to shy away from controversy.

I can’t wait. Luckily, I have a calendar just so I can put a giant red X through the month of May as free time allotted to GTA IV. Welcome back, wasted time, I’ve missed you.

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Update: Since writing this post, I have gone back to San Andreas for the first time in two years and beat the 8-Track…at last. 82.35% complete. So many unique jumps yet to be found! Can I finish it before GTA IV comes out? Eh, still not likely…

Chris definitely loves the GTA series more than I do. I liked GTA3, but it wasn’t that great for me. Part of that stems from the fact that I was first introduced to it as a sort of “party game” where the object was to get as many stars as you can, while staying alive. I like driving a giant truck into a crowd of pedestrians as much as the next girl, but it just gets boring after awhile. Break into the military base, steal a tank, shoot at police cars, blah, blah, blah. Then Vice City felt kind of cheap, like it was really just GTA3b. Slap a Hawaiian shirt on the guy, add a few more cars, and expect me to think it’s a new game? I don’t think so. After San Andreas, I lost interest completely. I was pretty engaged for the first 40% or so, but then I got bored. I hated the gang territory thing; having to interrupt what I’m doing to go fight for land I already won just didn’t appeal to me. Also, the RPG wannabe aspects where you have to go eat occasionally in order to not get too thin, and go to the gym and press X for ten minutes to “beef up” were just stupid. This was compounded by the fact that in order to get 100% in the game you have to sleep with every available girl. Oh, that girl only likes fat guys, so go spend 20 minutes and $600 eating pizza. No, thanks. I actually am willing to take the blame for Chris never finishing GTA:SA, because I always wanted to play something else. Hopefully, GTA: IV will be better, get rid of the crap, and just keep the good stuff.